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When Leifur Porarinsson’s Trio for flute, clarinet and horn
was performed at the Icelandic composers’ own festival in
1957, there was a special note in the programme that the trio
was a twelve-tone work. Perhaps the twenty-three year old
composer - Leifur Porarinsson was bom in 1934 - wanted to
be regarded as a modernist, which he undoubtedly was, at
any rate in comparison to most of his Icelandic colleagues. It
was precisely in 1957 that he had completed his three years
of study in Vienna, where the well-known twelve-tone
theoretician and composer Hanns Jelinek had been one of his
teachers. Leifur Porarinsson should therefore have been fairly
well versed in the Schoenberg school. Icelandic composers
were compelled to travel abroad in order to acquire such
knowledge. In their own country, neither music nor books on
the subject were available.
Otherwise Leifur Porarinsson was not very forthcoming
with information about himself or his music. When his Violin
Sonata was performed at the ISCM festival in Stockholm in
1956, he simply called himself “Leifur” in the programme
booklet, and in contrast to his verbose colleagues, he gave no
explanation to his listeners. The sonata was at least well-
received by some, and was especially praised by Karlheinz
Stockhausen, even if it was superficially comparatively
traditional.
Leifur Porarinsson was actually a violinist. He had studied
with the leader of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Bjorn
Olafsson, and had for a time been a member of the same
orchestra. However, he began to compose at a fairly early
age. He studied theory with Jon Porarinsson, and wrote the
songs that were performed at the Musica Nova concert in
1960 when he was only 19 years old. In 1954 he wrote a little
collection of piano works, Barnalagaflokkur (for children).
These show a strong influence from Bartok, although one can
suspect a rather arrogant and unruly temperament, even here.
The Violin Sonata mentioned above is conventional on the
surface. It is in three movements (quick-slow-quick) and
makes use of the violin as a romantic instrument. At times it
almost tastes of Sibelius. However, it is also a personal work.
The first movement is aggressive and unfriendly, the last is
striking with its sharp contrasts and its surprisingly quiet
ending. The Piano Sonata (1957) was classified by Jon Leifs
Leifur Porarinsson
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